While they are not as well known as the Milk Bar Compost Cookies, the Blueberry-and-Cream Cookies are popular too. At one point there was a video of Martha Stewart and Christina Tosi baking them on Martha Stewart's page, but that was a while back and the recipe has changed somewhat. Christina Tosi included a newer version in the Milk Bar cookbook, and it's a little better than the old one.
What Makes Blueberry-and-Cream Cookies Special?
The Blueberry-and-Cream Cookies are special for a few reasons. First, they include the bakery's signature milk crumb. Second, they are very large! You can make them smaller, but since they're bakery replicas large is more fun. And third, they're special because of their texture, which is crispy on the outside with a soft interior that comes from lots and lots of mixing. You're going to want to use a stand mixer for these cookies.
Milk Crumb
So as mentioned, the Blueberry-and-Cream Cookies have what's called Milk Crumb in them. This is something you make ahead of time by tossing together dried milk powder, flour, cornstarch, sugar and butter, baking it, and tossing with more milk powder plus a little white chocolate. I like to make this well before I start the cookie dough.
Cookie Dough
The cookie dough is thick and cold and can be shaped into 12 to 17 cookies. I've always made 12 very large cookies, which I sometimes bake from frozen. One nice thing about this dough is that it only needs to be chilled for one hour. Does chilling it longer improve the texture of the cookies? I don't know because I haven't yet chilled this dough for longer than an hour, but chilling dough almost always improves texture.
Lots of Mixing
One reason you should buy the Milk Bar cookbook is that it explains the reasons for and the science behind the 4 minutes of creaming the butter and sugar and 8 (!) minutes of beating after adding the egg. I admit, I don't beat the mixture quite as long, but I still get the special texture, which is crispy on the outside and soft and smooth on the inside. It gets even better if you cool the cookies, then freeze, then thaw.
Ingredient Notes
These are just some thoughts and recommendations on ingredients.
- Dry Milk Powder -- I'm a big fan of Bob's Red Mill brand. It tastes better to me than other milk powders. I haven't tried Judee's yet, but their other products are all very good and it gets great reviews.
- White Chocolate -- I have made these with melted white chips in place of melted white chocolate. White chocolate is probably better, but the chips work just fine.
- All-Purpose Flour -- Use a good strong flour like King Arthur. The book states it's the kind of flour they used when developing their cookie recipes.
- Plugra Butter -- This butter always seems to give me big, fat cookies. And by that I mean "thick". If you can, use Plugra. If you can't find it, just use Land o' Lakes. Cheaper butter will probably results in flatter cookies.
- Glucose Syrup or Corn Syrup -- Glucose syrup is worth ordering if you'd like to experiment with it. It gives the cookies a stiffer texture. I used it once and liked the results, but since then I've always just used corn syrup. The book says to sub 2 tablespoons of corn syrup (35 grams) for ¼ cup corn syrup (100 grams). This makes no sense and I think it's a typo since corn syrup weighs about 20 grams per tablespoon. I make the cookies with ¼ cup or about 80 grams corn syrup.
- Dried or Frozen Blueberries -- The original recipe calls for dried blueberries. I've tried these with both types. I like fresh blueberries, but the cookies keep better and the insides don't get as mushy if you use the dried berries. So if you are going to eat the cookies right away fresh is good, but dried is probably better if you plan on freezing.
Recipe
Milk Bar Blueberries and Cream Cookies
Ingredients
Milk Crumb Mixture
- 5 tablespoons dry milk powder, divided use
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt omit if using salted butter
- 1 ½ tablespoons butter melted
- 2 oz white chocolate, melted
Cookie Dough
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (320 grams)
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt ( 1 ½ if using Diamond Kosher)
- 8 oz unsalted butter, such as Plugra (228 grams)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar, tightly packed (150 grams)
- ¼ cup glucose or corn syrup (80 grams)
- 2 large eggs
- ⅔ cup milk crumb mixture (from above)
- ¾ cup dried blueberries or 1 cup fresh, tossed in a teaspoon of cornstarch
Instructions
- Make the Milk Crumb first.
- Preheat oven to 225 and have ready a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Whisk together 2 ½ tablespoons of dry milk powder plus flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt, then stir in melted butter until coated.Spread on parchment sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until dry. Remove from oven and let cool. Transfer to a bowl and stir in remaining milk powder and melted white chocolate. Let cool and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat together the softened butter, sugars, and glucose for 3 to 4 minutes on medium speed. Scrape down the side of the bowl. Add eggs and beat for 7 to 8 minutes (I only beat for 3 to 4). Add flour mixture and mix until well combined. Don't overbeat. Add the milk crumb mixture and stir until mixed, then add blueberries.
- Use an ice cream scoop to scoop dough into balls, spacing about 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for about 15 minutes (it may take longer, especially if the dough is cold or frozen), rotating pans halfway through, until cookies are golden brown and tops begin to crack.
- Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.
kitty62 says
Day 2: These cookies were still crisp along the edges and chewy on the inside. I liked the flavor very much on the second day, still just not sure about the taste of the blueberries....think i will try dried cherries next time. Boyfriends still loves them. They are a good breakfast cookie with coffee 😉
kitty62 says
For the record, my comment is based on the fact that i just finished making a batch of these cookies, lol 😉
Just wasnt into racing around town looking for glucose, so I substituted the glucose with Karo syrup(light color) and used salted butter and omitted most of the added salt, other than that I followed the recipe to the 'T'. I tried them just slightly cooled and then totally cooled. The cookie was crispy on the edges and chewy on the inside (middle). This is exactly the way I like a cookie to be. The taste was another story. I didnt hate them, liked them better totally cooled, just not sure how much I liked them. My boyfriend absolutely loved them! So now I am curious to try them with glucose, because i did like the cookie's texture.
Anna says
Lana, thanks for trying the recipe and reporting back. Like you, I could really taste the white chocolate. It was one of the primary flavors. Just for fun, I used some of the glucose in a chocolate chip recipe. It had the same effect in the chocolate chip version. I haven't posted it yet, though
Lana says
I finished baking these earlier this morning. I had to make these cookies because they certainly were different to put together. The cookies turned out looking very similiar to the picture, and that does not happen very often for me. They are crisp on the edges and chewy in the center and I was surprised how much you could taste the white chocolate. I will probably make these again since I did buy the glucose and white chocolate but because of the extra steps would probably only bake for special occasions. They were fun to make and taste great.
Jennifer says
Katrina and Anna,
Sorry, I was worried that I offended Katrina and didn't want to make her feel bad!
I did blog for quite a while and mean to get back to it. I've just been swamped; I went back to school this last fall and feel like that takes all my brain power.
Jennifer
Katrina says
Oh and hey, Jennifer, I just looked up your blog and didn't know it was you. What happened to you? You used to do TWD! And you haven't blogged for a good months! Hello? I loved your blog and hearing about your GREAT kids and such.
Katrina says
Jennifer, yep, it was a joke that I knew Anna would get because I knew she feels that way. Anna is one of my favorite people to tease.
Oh, hi, Anna. 😉
And for the record, I TOTALLY agree with both of you!
Anna says
Jen, I know exactly what you mean and it's a pet peeve of mine too. That is, when people go on a recipe review site that uses star ratings and give 5 stars to something before they make it. "Oh, that looks great!" is fine and I love reading comments. But saying "Oh, that looks great" and then rating it 5 stars when you haven't actually tried it is really annoying for people who use stars as a measure of how well a recipe worked. Anyway, Katrina's just joking with you ;).
Jennifer says
Katrina,
Oh, I don't mean comments here! I just mean the comments on recipe sites. On blogs there's way more lee-way, but when I look at the comments at allrecipes, or recipezaar, or Martha Stewart's website (where it's just a recipe and not a story about a recipe, if you know what I mean...) it's just frustrating when the commenters rate a recipe poorly that they haven't made.
Jennifer
Sue says
This makes me think that you were closer to the compost cookie than you thought. It looks like they do make ingredients to put in the cookies. I vaguely recall you being a little discouraged about having to make stuff to put in them.
Katrina says
I was just going to stop and say they look great and how fun for you to find all those ingredients and make them. That's all I was going to say, but now after reading Jennifer's comment, I'm not going to say it. 😉
Jennifer says
I read the comments (at M. Stewart's site) about the blueberry and cream cookies. Maybe I am just picky, but I hate it when people leave comments that HAVEN'T made (or even tasted) the recipe. That recipe seems to have a lot of comments about how the recipe looks like "a lot of work." How is that a helpful comment? I think it's one thing if someone MAKES the recipe and says it wasn't worth the work, that I can totally get, but to diss a recipe based upon conjecture is just wrong.
Barbara says
Sorry you can't get the compost cookies right- they sound wonderful.
I haven't made the Blueberry and Cream cookies, but I will! They look lovely.
gloria says
Just the name of these cookies makes my mouth water!
Anna says
LOL. Ari, that was pretty much the consensus on the Martha Stewart site.
Cheryl says
Look great, but those compost cookies sound amazing!
Ari says
Just my opinion; the words "compost" and "glucose" do not belong in a cookie recipe!
Anna says
Emily, it did make them chewy but they also seemed really stiff and more candy-like in the center. I'm not sure what the milk crunch did besides add flavor and it really didn't dissolve into the dough that much. The little speckles are the milk crunch. But I liked what the glucose did to the dough. I might try using it in place of corn syrup somewhere. Glucose is also supposed to help the cookies stay fresh.
Emily says
Ah, chewiness.
Emily says
I saw those cookies at Milk Bar and didn't try them! I'm so disappointed in myself. These look great. I'm watching the video right now. What does glucose do to a cookie? I'm curious. Maybe she'll explain in the video.